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Importance of Recruitment Processes in the Dynamics and Resilience of Coral Reef Assemblages

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Book cover Marine Animal Forests

Abstract

Recruitment is now widely recognized as a fundamental process governing spatial patterns, dynamics, and maintenance of marine invertebrate communities. Moreover, recruitment is a critical factor for successful recovery following disturbances and thus resilience of ecosystems. Over the last decades, tropical coral reefs, which are one of the most diverse ecosystems on Earth and provide goods and services to ~500 million people, have been confronted with various types of natural and anthropogenic disturbances, causing widespread mortality of reef-building coral species. In this context, understanding processes of coral recruitment and their patterns in time and space is a fundamental step to understand, detect, and predict the effects of climate change on reef ecosystems. Despite major advancements in the last three decades, our understanding of some critical phases of coral recruitment processes remains too limited for their integration into management and conservation actions that are urgently needed for this unique ecosystem. Here, we synthesize and analyze existing literature on coral recruitment to determine the state of knowledge, identify knowledge gaps, and suggest future lines of research. We particularly focus on the spatiotemporal variability of recruitment and its controlling factors, the relative importance of pre- and post-settlement events and life strategies in the maintenance of adult assemblages, and the critical role of recruitment for the recovery and resilience of disturbed reef communities.

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Acknowledgment

The authors are thankful to Maureen Ho and Andrew G. Carroll for improvements on the manuscript.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. UMR 9220 ENTROPIE & Laboratoire d’Excellence “CORAIL”, Institut de Recherche pour le Développement, UPVD 52 avenue Paul Alduy, 66860, Perpignan, France

    M. Adjeroud

  2. Bren School of Environmental Science & Management, University of California, 2400 Bren Hall, Santa Barbara, CA, 93106-5131, USA

    M. Kayal

  3. UMR 9220 ENTROPIE & Laboratoire d’Excellence “CORAIL”, Université de la Réunion, 15 avenue René Cassin CS 92003, 97744, Saint Denis Cédex 9, La Réunion, France

    L. Penin

Authors
  1. M. Adjeroud
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  2. M. Kayal
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  3. L. Penin
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Correspondence to M. Adjeroud .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Inst. Environmental Science & Technology Autonomous University of Barcelona, Bellaterra, Spain

    Sergio Rossi

  2. LECOB / Ocean Observatory CNRS / Pierre and Marie Curie University, Banyuls-sur-mer, France

    Lorenzo Bramanti

  3. Dept. Marine Biology & Oceanography, Institute of Marine Sciences, Barcelona, Spain

    Andrea Gori

  4. Balearic Oceanographic Centre Spanish Institute of Oceanography, Palma de Mallorca, Spain

    Covadonga Orejas Saco del Valle

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Adjeroud, M., Kayal, M., Penin, L. (2016). Importance of Recruitment Processes in the Dynamics and Resilience of Coral Reef Assemblages. In: Rossi, S., Bramanti, L., Gori, A., Orejas Saco del Valle, C. (eds) Marine Animal Forests. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-17001-5_12-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-17001-5_12-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-17001-5

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